Candida by George Bernard Shaw: A Brief Assessment

• George Bernard Shaw was born on 26th July 1856 in Dublin. He was a man of
great intellectual ability. The play Candida is written by George Bernard Shaw.
• Candida is the name of the central figure of the play. The word Candida is
derived from the adjective ‘candid’, which means frank and truthful.
• The major characters of the play are Candida, Reverend James Mavor Morell,
and Eugene Marchbanks.
• The minor characters of the play are Burgess, Miss Proserpine Garnett, and
Reverend Alexander Mills (Lexy).
• Morell is a clergyman. He is Candida’s husband. He believes that he is leading a
perfect married life with his wife.
• Candida is a self-confident, strong-headed woman. She believes in herself. She
is always guided by her head, not by her heart. She performs her domestic duties
properly.
• Marchbanks is a poet of great moral and intellectual strength. He enters the
house of Morell and Candida as a guest.
• He challenges Morell’s belief of a perfect marriage with Candida. He threatens
Morell because he believes that Morell tortures Candida and she is unhappy in
her married life.
• Shaw in his plays gives a long description of characters and the stage, so that
people can understand the ideas of the writer.
• Candida is an interesting play with a different twist in a regular story of love and
marriage.
• The last act of the play is important and leads the play to a new discussion.

Reference reading: Candida: George Bernard Shaw.

Professor Matrayi Priyadarshini,
Department of English and Modern European Languages,
University of Lucknow.